Iowa has Been Named One of the Happiest States in the U.S.

Apparently, the first step to being happy is moving to the Midwest! MagnifyMoney recently conducted a study to find out the happiest states in America, and Midwest states made up over half the top 10!

So, how did they determine our happiness levels? According to the article:

"MagnifyMoney evaluated how each of the 50 states rank on 20 factors in the categories of health, lifestyle, and prosperity."

Those factors were broken up into three overall categories: health, lifestyle, and economic stability.

Iowa did really well overall, nabbing the number eight spot on the list. We came in 5th place for health, 9th for economic stability, and 18th for lifestyle. But, there were some things we didn't rank so high in. For example, Iowa came in 44th place for "percentage of people who exercise regularly." Ouch!

The top 5 happiest states overall are:

Minnesota

South Dakota

Colorado

Utah

North Dakota

The top 5 unhappiest states overall are:

Louisiana

Rhode Island

West Virginia

Alabama

Mississippi

To check out the rest of the rankings and read more about the process behind them, click HERE.